Instagram
Being written by Parichay Swarup Overview Instagram is a photo sharing application on mobile devices and is currently considered one of the most popular social networks in the world. It was purchased by Facebook Inc. in 2012 for approximated USD $1 Billion Definition Instagram can be defined as a free online photo-sharing and social networking platform that is currently owned by Facebook Inc. Instagram allows it's users to edit and upload photographs and subsequently share them via several other social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter Tumblr, Foursquare and Flickr. Instagram goes beyond just sharing photographs, and is seen by Kelly Lux - Director of Social Media at Syracuse University's iSchool - "as a way to get a glimpse into the everyday lives of people who I’ll never meet". It allows people who follow very different paths and lives to see the day-to-day lives of others and share some of the common things such as celebrations and events. History Instagram was developed in San Francisco, California by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger in 2010. The name Instagram' is the combination of the two words 'Instant Camera' and 'Telegram' '' Initially released only for the iPhone, Instagram quickly gained popularity amongst the photography community and was applauded for it's filters, it's clean design, and dedication to sharing photographs. In 2011, Instagram received the honor of being named the 'App of the Year' by Apple, a remarkable feat for an a company that had less that 15 employees at the time. After adding hashtags in 2011, discoverability for photographs went up significantly. The app started to become more accessible to the public and allowed Instagram to truly be classified as a social network. Towards the end of 2011, Instagram completed another round of seed funding to finally be valued at $25 million. This rapid rise to fame eventually led to the development of an Android-based app, and in 2012 Instagram finally left it's 'Only on iPhone' status to release an app for the Android operating system. This process further boosted the total number of downloads for the app and was the primary cause for the company's new valuation at $500 million. All this publicity finally caught on, reaching the offices of Mark Zukerberg at Facebook Inc. On the 12th of April 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram for approximately $1 Billion in stock options and cash. This was Facebook Inc's second largest acquisition to this day after the purchase of messaging application Whatsapp for $19 Billion. The deal put Instagram in the spotlight with the backing of one of the most revered and influential technology companies of the modern age. It eventually raised Instagram's web page rank to be included amongst the top 50 in the world (Current Alexa rank places Instagram at 25) Instagram has since become a tool to share pictures and video for celebrities, brands, and people all over the world. Companies can sponsor posts on Instagram, similar to that of Twitter and allow for a more native form of advertising. More interestingly, Instagram has also become a way for individuals and groups in several countries to report the news as it happens, via pictures. Advocacy and Activism runs throughout the Instagram eco-system, and with the help of trends, hashtags, and geotags on images, it has become easier than ever to be involved in a movement through the social media platform. Examples Instagram can be used as a medium to spread awareness and for activism. To highlight that fact, a relatively recent campaign involving the current First Lady - Mrs. Michelle Obama involved the usage of a hashtag "Bring Back Our Girls' ''shown in a photograph soon became viral and was a campaign regarding the ''Chibok Schoolgirls Kidnapping in 2014. Instagram allows users to search and contribute keywords by adding them to their post, by doing so, users can find specific types of posts quickly and easily. Using some of the most popular and most-searched hashtags can increase visibility on this social networking site. Here is an example of some of the most commonly used hashtags. Further Reading & Resources ''Visualizing Instagram: Tracing cultural visual rhythms'' - We seek ways to visualize, analyze and discover concealed sociocultural characteristics and trends in this ever-growing flow of visual information. ''War on Instagram: Framing conflict photojournalism with mobile photography apps'' - This paper examines recent acclaim for professional embedded photojournalists who visually document the experience of US soldiers in Afghanistan using the popular mobile photo application. '''Zooming into an Instagram City: Reading the local through social media - '''This paper shows how users’ experiences of production, sharing, and interaction with the media they create mediated by the interfaces of particular social media platforms. '''Instagram Marketing: When brands want to reach Generation Y with their communication - '''This paper 'finds out how marketing on Instagram works in order to reach Generation Y. It's purpose is to contribute with theoretical knowledge about what communication Generation Y prefers from brands on Instagram, why they prefer it and what it can lead to. '''The Complete Guide To Mastering Instagram -' How do other Instagrammers capture such great images and how do these images get on to the explore page? This article talks about the tricks of the trade every budding Instagrammer should know! Related Keywords # Social Media # Internet # Media Ideology # Photography # Advocacy # Activism # Content Sharing Citations * Ahmad, Irfan. "Timeline of Instagram from 2010 to Present INFOGRAPHIC." Social Media Today. N.p., 07 Jan. 2014. Web. 14 May 2015. * Lux, Kelly. "What Is Instagram and Why Is It So Popular?" Information Space What Is Instagram and Why Is It So Popular Comments. Syracuse University ISchool, 15 Dec. 2011. Web. 14 May 2015. * Hochman, Nadav, and Raz Schwartz. "Visualizing instagram: Tracing cultural visual rhythms." Proceedings of the Workshop on Social Media Visualization (SocMedVis) in conjunction with the Sixth International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM–12). 2012. * Alper, Meryl. "War on Instagram: Framing conflict photojournalism with mobile photography apps." New Media & Society (2013): 1461444813504265. * Hochman, Nadav, and Lev Manovich. "Zooming into an Instagram City: Reading the local through social media." First Monday 18.7 (2013). *Johansson, Ulrika, and Frida Eklöf Wallsbeck. "Instagram Marketing: When brands want to reach Generation Y with their communication." (2014). *Ruane, Lorna. "The Complete Guide To Mastering Instagram - Learn Inbound." Learn Inbound. N.p., 28 Oct. 2014. Web. 14 May 2015.